Hunting season with the boys

It’s never too early to bring them along….I started taking Hunter with me this fall in some pheasant hunting spots with Cooper. The kids are always fascinated when I bring pheasants or deer home, so I wanted to take them to see how its done. So I took Hunter with me out bird hunting with Cooper and Jack asked to come bow hunting with me. Of course tactics and how we hunt changes slightly when you are with a 4 and 5 year old, but its the absolute best to be in the field with the kids. If this is any indication of how the years to come will be spent, then its going to be a lot of fun.

Pheasants in February

Glad the game commission finally let pheasants in until February.  Makes for some fun, but tough late season hunts.  Cooper and I went out after a good snow storm hit and trudged through the foot and a half of snow.  The birds were sitting pretty tight with all the snow, so we worked pretty slow.  Here is the last rooster of the day and a nice retrieve over a fence, a creek bottom, and through some deep snow.

2013 South Dakota Pheasant Hunting

Cooper and I went on a pheasant hunting trip to South Dakota with our friends Brad and Christine and their German Shorthair Pointer, Roxie.  We leased a 1200 acre farm and rented a house in Hoven, South Dakota to hunt wild pheasants for four days.  I had been out to South Dakota a few years ago with my wife and Cooper and we had an absolute blast.  She couldn't make the trip this time, but I wanted to get Cooper out (at least) one more time while he was in his prime.

 

 We had an awesome trip, but the hunting was definitely tough.  The overall bird numbers were down in South Dakota this year and this farm gets hunted by a different group of hunters each week.  We saw a lot of hens and much fewer roosters and the birds were highly educated and wily this late in the season.  We saw many birds that just seemed to flush just outside of shotgun range and the birds that came up in range were fast and tough.  Every bird we got was earned through some long tough miles and relentless dog work. 

 

I cant wait to come back out here one day with the kids and a few more dogs!

 

 

 

 

Brad / Roxy and me / Cooper

 

Cooper making the first retrieve of the trip





Old windmill on the prairie



Roxie on a nice retrieve



First afternoon on public land.  Great start!

One proud Lab after a hard day's work

 

My wild pheasant and portabella crock pot recipe

 

Living room of the rental house



Best part of the day!

Cooper and Roxie with fine retrieves

A pointer and a retriever can work together well!

Cooper and I with a beautiful wild Ringneck using Dad's old Beretta 12 gauge

Beer of the trip = Bells Midwestern Pale Ale

Brad and Christine with a gigantic cottontail rabbit





Random old port-a-potty at the reclaimed gravel pit yard.  Strange, but convenient!

SouthDakotaWild.com



Just another breath taking SD sunset.

 

Cooper being Cooper.  Captain Nitwit!

Small game bonanza - 11/25

 

Trip Summary from Pittsburgh - South Dakota  - Lynchburg, VA.  3,230 miles!

I found the worlds BEST sunflower seeds.

 


Sunset over the old farmstead in Hoven, SD after the last day's hunt while sitting on the tail gate drinking a cold one.



 

Pheasant Season Kick Off

I've been trying to get Cooper into shape for our South Dakota hunt coming up in November.  I've probably taken him out about 6 times now to just exercise him.  We hit a lot of the game lands in Washington County which are always hit and miss.  A couple hunts we never even got a bird, but that's State Game Land hunting for you.  We did manage a few birds and more importantly got him into (better) shape.

 

                         

Cooper and Molly's pheasant hunt

I went pheasant hunting with a buddy who used his parents red-lab, Molly, to work pheasants.  This was the first time the dogs met and after a short conversation, we realized both dogs were bred by the same Sire.  Really, I see no similarities????

Molly on left and Cooper on right in both pics

We had a really nice morning hunt and the dogs worked well.  It was really cool to even see some of the similarities in the hunting style.  Pretty neat they were able to hunt together.

JP's 1st Upland Hunt

One of my best friends from JMU that lives in Boston came into town for the Steelers v. Ravens game.  We had some time to kill on the weekend and we decided to get out to a local hunting preserve (where he didn't need a license.)  He had never hunted before and only shot a gun once in his life.  It was a beautiful day and he wanted to see Cooper in his element and try his hand at wing shooting.

 We started out with some clay pigeons and Johnny hit a couple - probably batting around .200. But when we moved onto the birds, it was a whole new game and he was dead nuts.  One after another, he didn't miss a single bird.  The first few birds Cooper flushed were chukar and he smoked them. 

There were pheasants all throughout the property, but man were they running.  These birds were really wily and rarely held.  It was also warm with little wind, which made it tough for Cooper.  But he stuck with them and tracked them really well. 

                                                                                                           Wait, Labs can point????

Towards the end of the hunt, we finally put a couple ringnecks up for Johnny and he was lights out on them too. There were some pretty difficult crossing shots and I was super impressed with how he swung on these birds very naturally.  Cooper did his work and fetched them quickly up. 

All in all it was a great hunt and I think we have a new wing shooter whenever he is in town.  We finished up with a couple cold Two Hearted Ales on the tailgate of the truck and then headed home.

                                        Johnny was absolutely lights out shooting.  First time out.  Literally didn't miss a bird!  I never seen that.  

                                                                                          Helltown Brewing from Mt. Pleasant, PA

Earlier in the day, we were down in the Stript District and picked up a growler of Helltown Reserve Stout.  I'd never heard of this brew, but we come to find out that it was a new local brewery in my old hometown of Mt. Pleasant, PA!  I had no clue.   I had to laugh at the name of the brewery given some of my youthful experiences.  But, I later learned Mt. Pleasant was nick named 'Helltown' due to the omnipresent red glow of the coke ovens and the hazy smog that created a very eerie rendition of Hell on Earth.   

So with a few Stouts under our belt, we decided to get a little exotic and plucked the pheasants (which is a pain in the ass) to keep the skin on and then spatchcock them so they could be grilled whole.  I'd had never prepared a bird of any kind like this and Johnny showed me how to cut the breast bone out so it could be grilled flat.  I would never have grilled pheasant breasts because they would typically be too dry, but the secret was that you grill it with the bones in and it keeps the bird MOIST and flavorable.  You really get the taste of pheasant and they were delicious.  Birds, beer, grilling...good day.